RGS Energy

RGS Energy bought Carlson Solar who installed our solar system in 2007. Carlson had excellent follow up, service and a great reputation. If the solar system was down, they were on site within 24 hours addressing the issue, even on weekends. Unfortunately RGS Energy is not Carlson Solar in terms of service or support. A request for service was only responded to after we took our issue to the corporate office. A week is now going on two weeks and service has yet to be scheduled. The way this issue is being handled, I have to question whether RGS Energy has a crew that does service in California. If you are buying a solar system, know that a solar system does require some maintenance and service. My suggestion is that you buy a solar system only from companies that have service crews located in your region.

My wife and I took over a solar lease when we bought our new house in November 2014. The first rain we had revealed a leak in our roof. The leak appeared to be coming from where the solar panels were installed. We called RGS and they sent Justin out to take a look. He showed up in baggy pants and smelled like cigarettes as we welcomed him into our home with young children. Not the smell I want from a ‘professional’ in our home. As Justin was looking around in the attic he knock out a can light, which he IGNORED and pretended it didn’t happen until he was making his closing speech and my wife asked if he was going to fix that (and pointed to it). After his inspection he stated the leak was coming from where the solar panels had been installed and they would need to come out and redo the roofing work around them. He said he would call within a few days, and didn’t. When we called him he said he was waiting to hear back from his boss. Because of the holidays (new years) he said his boss would call the monday following the new year. NO CALL BACK to us. We were relieved to hear this company take ownership for their mistake but after the lack of communication we were losing hope. When we finally heard from his boss, Ivan, who we asked to be called by, he told us they outsourced to a roofing company to do the patch work underneath where the panels would be placed and that company has gone out of business. YET this was 3 WEEKS of no communicating to us what the hell was going on.
Finally, after mentioning lawyers Ivan agreed to come out and look at the roof and get more pictures of the leaks and the water damage to our doors and walls from the three leaks. Ivan and Justin came out and showed no signs of a professional working relationship… more like they were drinking buddies. They showed no remorse for anything and acted like they wanted us to get lawyers involved so they wouldn’t have to deal with it. (they are instructed to send the incident up the chain if patrons mention lawyers, so Ivan said but we have never heard from anyone else in the company). Ivan gave us nothing but lip service and false promises. Ivan told me to expect callbacks from the claims department as well as follow-​up appointments to take care of the leak. None of that happened. Now months went by with several more rainy days and water puddling inside our home. No word from RGS.
When the solar leasing company contacted us to come out and check to make sure the readings are accurate, we told them no one will be on this property until our roof is fixed. No one has heard of this issue until now, so a wonderful dispatcher at our finance company promptly told us they would help us. They contacted RGS to get this fixed and they didn’t hear back from them. So now they are hiring a third party company to fix the damage and then billing RGS. And guess what, I only had to call them once! RGS has been nothing but a disappointment, they don’t care about their clients and from what I’ve seen of their employees, it’s a terrible company from top to bottom.
To all potential solar panel consumers, if you want to save yourself a half hour of writing a bad review, use another company!

i had some dealings with an employee from RGS Ruben Ugarte. The guy was super dishonest. If he works for this company or it is his then they cannot be good.
Avoid Ruben Ugarte and RGS like the plague.

Took a solar course here. Very informative and well worth the money. Hands on and a lot of very good information.

Update on my solar installation. Learned a bit more about all of my delays and they weren’t all on the shoulders of Real Goods Solar. Solar system permission to turn on was granted at the end of May and went through a full account review to see where and who dropped the ball throughout the process. Clean Power Finance was 90% of the issue (financing company that Real Goods solely used in the past — have since found that they have formed a relationship with another entity that is much better and the process is smoother). CPF and their paperwork added at least 2 months to my process and install delays!
In the end — system is on — system is functional and system is delivering MORE than RGS originally promised. We estimated that we would have a solar shortfall in June and we actually have 2,000 KwH banked with the electric company!
Looks like RGS took my install failures to heart, listened and corrected their problems! Don’t have any experience with any of their salespersonnel except for Ken Durant so can’t vouch for any of them… but…if you get Ken as your rep, you’ve got a customer advocate till your system is fully functional… he fought the fight on my behalf from the beginning of the install and can’t say enough about his support.
Now that we’re up and running felt as though a revision to my original review was necessary — system and monitoring working great and we’re over delivering what we initially were expecting!

We are in the process of getting our solar installed with Real Good Solar. After much research not only because of their readiness to help the needs of our household but also their honesty and work ethics! We had an awesome RGS employee, Ken, who has been with us every step of the project. His main responsibility was to just meet us, see our needs and get us going with the installation. But not only did he do this but he has been willing and available to help us with any questions along the way and has made it his job to fix any concerns that we’ve had. RGS will not only give you a great experience in your new transition but they will make sure you get only what you need and not push you to spend a penny more. They’ll tell you if solar is a good choice for your household and will be honest of its not necessary to get solar as well. Although we had a tiny hiccup with the design, Ken and the other employees at RGS were quick to jump on the dilemma and fix it very quickly within hours (even if that meant meeting us at our home after his workday) so no set back was necessary! I recommend if you are interested in getting solar for your home to go to Real Good Solar! They will take care of you as they did us!

Am currently in the beginning stages of getting solar installed through RGS, and wanted to write up a review for how things have gone so far. I had a great interaction with Dave Kingery who came out to discuss my needs, future plans, etc., and helped spec out a conservative system that could later be expanded upon. He’s knowledgeable and enthusiastic about solar, and didn’t try to sell me more than I needed.
RGS was originally recommended to me by some friends who used them a few years ago. I did some double-​checking of their quotes and figures, and felt very comfortable moving forward with them. Interaction so far has been great, and I’m looking forward to getting everything up and running!

We had our system installed in 2008 and still could not be happier. Our annual electric bills went from $ 3,600 down to $ 500 (which is what we expected). One of the things we liked about Real Goods Solar over other companies is that they helped US decide what size system to get to fit our needs. They did not autimatically try to sell us the largest system they could. They definitely get extra points for that.
As for the install and service, everything went smoothly and professionally, installed on time in only 2 days. We are very satisfied customers and would highly recommend Real Goods to anyone considering a system.

RGS claims to match all prices, but when I showed them a lower price from a competitor for the same system they quoted me, they happily matched it. However, they matched the price by giving me a smaller system. Claiming that they are the best company and offer best service. I told them that’s not matching the price. They’re not comparing apples to apples. I didn’t sign with RGS.